Inkopolis: Day 1
by VOX-9
Summary: A simple Splatoon fanfiction about two inklings on their first day of Turf War. It's kind of long, but hang in there! (Complete)
1. Have a Nice Day

I laid awake in bed, as I had been doing for at least the last hour.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

OK. Time to actually get up now.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

I continued to lay in bed, my body apparently ignoring my brain's commands.

What was wrong with me? I had been looking forward to this day for 14 years... 14 years! So why did I feel so... I don't know. Nervous? Yes. Very. Scared? Kind of. OK, a lot. Excited? Totally. So why wasn't I getting out of bed? It's just so... Overwhelming, that's it. The biggest day of an Inkling's life, as everyone says. And here I am, in bed, not doing anything.

I finally couldn't stand it anymore, and slammed my fist on the alarm clocks button. 'Have a good day,' it flashed in bright orange letters. I had programmed it to say that. I found it kind of annoying now. Like it was mocking me, almost.

Well, at least it wasn't beeping any more. I sat up and swung my feet over the side of the bed. I stared at them for a while, wiggling my toes. They were so strange. Tan... and kind of smooth, and don't get me started on the toes. There were five of them, arranged from biggest to smallest. I had grown so accustomed to looking down and just seeing orange foot-shaped lumps. And my hands! Those were pretty weird too. The same color as my feet, and with all these fingers, five of them, all over the place. Stop it, I told myself. Now is not the time. I got up and walked over to my desk.

My room was unnaturally organized. Not a single thing was out of place. I breathed a sigh of pleasure. Seeing my room like this always comforted me a little. I had a bed, a few shelves, a bookcase, and a desk. A few posters decorated my otherwise barren walls, and shelves above my desk overflowed with neatly grouped cables hooked up to various devices. On my desk were two presents I had received for my 14th birthday: A sleek new laptop, unopened, and a folded pile of clothes. I was just itching to start hooking up my laptop to my 3-D printer, Ethernet broadcaster, Holo display, and all my other devices. Fortunately, I was able to restrain myself by looking at the other gifts. My parents, like all inkling parents, had gotten me the 'Starter Kit' for my 14th birthday, which included the clothes, a Gamepad, ink tank, and a Splattershot Jr. It was just what any Inkling needed to start fighting Turf Wars, which was what I was going to do today. The goal of Turf Wars is simple: You and your team try to cover more turf with your color ink than the opposing team in a certain amount of time. If you succeed, you win. If you don't, you lose. Pretty simple. But it gets quickly more complex when you introduce a variety of weapons, sub weapons, special weapons, gear abilities, gamemodes, and different stages. But in my opinion, the more complex it is, the more fun it is!


	2. You're a Squid Now

I put on my clothes, a yellow tee with a colorful pin-on button, a white headband with a grey logo, and black shorts with an orange stripe down the sides. Each of the clothes had a small tag on them with a certain symbol that indicated its ability. I looked in the mirror. Not unbearably bad, but still extremely moldy. I grabbed a scrunchie from my desk and tied my two larger orange tentacles in a ponytail, traditional male inkling style. My turquoise eyes countered the orange in a somewhat pleasant manner, I thought. It was more my clothes I was worried about. They fit fine and all, but practically screamed "NOOB!" It wasn't like I had a choice, though. These were the only Ink-compatible clothes I owned.

I lifted the white Splattershot Jr. off my desk and weighed it in my hands. It began to turn orange, spreading from where my hands touched it. It was fairly rectangular, with a purple nozzle and cap. I inspected it for a bit, and then set it down.

The Gamepad and Ink tank were still on my desk. I picked up the long, cylindrical tank and slung it over my shoulder. It was pretty light, and slowly began filling up with bright orange ink. I wondered exactly where the ink came from. Well, obviously me, but where exactly? I figured I would have to put 'The Advanced Internal Biology of the Modern-day Squid' on my reading list. Once the tank was full, a small red light on the top blinked. To my surprise, the green straps faded and disappeared after a few moments. I looked back in the mirror to find the tank part had also disappeared. I felt around where the tank should have been, and could touch it like normal.I moved round a bit, and the back of my shirt distorted a bit. Well, almost invisible. I had heard of this technology before, but had never actually seen it in real life. Fortunately, it was just as cool as I had imagined.

I picked up the gamepad and strapped it to my wrist. It was a thin rectangular device with a touch screen on the top. It weighed almost nothing. I let it sit untouched on my arm for a few seconds, and, it began to fade, turning invisible. I looked closely at my arm where it had been. If I looked close enough, I could see my arm distort the slightest bit when I moved it, just like the Ink Tank. They must both use the same technology, I thought. I flicked my wrist and it immediately became visible. On the screen it showed a 3-D layout of my room and a small orange squid facing the direction I was. I turned around and walked forward a few steps, and it moved to match my position. It must have an ultra-sensitive GPS tracker, I thought. It was more fine-tuned than most GPS's, though it could only show a small area at a time.

I looked at the time: 8:05. The train left at 9: 00, so I was fine. I figured I might as well practice transforming, or 'Squidding', as called by inklings my age.

I focused, and right away felt my body kind of… melt. My skin and clothes turned orange as they liquidated into ink. The ink covered my entire body, re-forming it. My liquidated legs could no longer support me, so I started to fall on my face, and, without thinking, spun around and landed face up. My eyes moved closer together while still keeping their black ring, and my two larger tentacles fell down to my sides. My lower body shrunk and disappeared, my arms and legs shortening until they were just pointed stubs. My head sharpened into a sort of cone-ish shape. And, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The whole thing had taken about a half-second. As I stared up at my ceiling, flat on my back, I could only think of one thing: I'm a squid now. My body was still completely liquid but held its shape nonetheless. I waved my tentacles experimentally. Everything seemed fine. I was one of the lucky few who didn't experience 'Transforming pains' when first starting out. That was one of the reasons I had waited until today, Saturday, to begin my journey, even though I turned 14 on Tuesday. I've heard of kids who started on the day they turned 14 and regretted it. I needed to make sure I had time to practice Transforming and get used to my humanoid form. You see, all inklings begin life as a squid. As they grow up, they get progressively more humanoid, until the night of their 14th birthday, in which the final changes take place. At this point they also gain the ability to transform back into a squid.

I transformed back into a kid, which was basically the same thing, except my body was solidifying instead of melting, and in reverse. I transformed back and forth a couple of times. Once I was confident I could do it without any problems, I made my bed, picked up my Splattershot Jr., slipped my phone in my pocket, and walked out of the room.

My parents had both already left for work, so I was the only one home. I ate a quick breakfast, and stepped out onto the back porch of our apartment for a second. My family had a small 15th story apartment in the Blackbelly sector. It was a perfect day, not too hot or cold. Looking down I had a spectacular bird's-eye view of Blackbelly Skatepark. It was not only used for skating, though, as it's many half-pipes, long corridors, and tall center tower made it a perfect spot for Turf Wars. It was at this very spot I had stood and watched hundreds of Ink Battles while growing up, and picked up numerous tricks and strategies. I could only hope I would be able to use them in battle today, or at least remember them.

I ate a quick breakfast and did the usual morning routine. As I stepped outside the apartment's front door, a small slip of paper taped to it caught my eye. It was a handwritten note from my mom, wishing me luck, and a few other mom-ish things, like how I'm growing up and becoming more independent. You know, mom stuff. How nice, I thought. I folded the note and put it in my pocket.

After riding the elevator down and walking through the lobby, I began to realize my mom had been right. I was becoming very independent, or at I least felt that way. It was this feeling that made it all the more fun to do Turf Wars, buy our own stuff, go places alone, all that. I smiled. I wondered if I would make any new friends. Probably, I thought, but not right away. I mean, right now I'm just a noob.


	3. Inkopolis Express

The train station wasn't very far away, and I was way ahead of schedule, so I thought I might as well take my time. My family lived in a middle-class part of town, with as many office buildings as apartment complexes. My family was on the higher end of the middle-class, so we could afford a few more luxuries than most of the people living here. It was a quiet part of town, not much activity (minus the Skate Park). But that was all right with me. It fit my personality quite nicely. It also meant, for better or worse, I had gotten very little exposure to other parts of the city, most of which I would end up seeing eventually because of the different Turf War stages.

I had barely seen anyone on the streets as I walked towards the station, but that was pretty common at this time of day. I walked up and paid for my ticket. The cashier seized me up. I knew what was coming.

"First timer?" she asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"Good luck."

"Thanks, you too."

I wished I could just melt away and disappear at that moment. Why did I do that? Why? I realized I was very capable of melting away, but upon further thought it did not seem like a very good solution to my problem. The cashier didn't seem to notice my embarrassment, but instead got kind of a faraway look in her eye. No doubt remembering her first day of Turf Wars. Well, all I could do is hope she didn't hear me, or at least didn't care. I quickly grabbed my ticket and Train Schedule and walked off.

I sat down on a bench near the train platform and looked around. The place wasn't packed, but there were plenty of people. There were a few kids on the opposite side of me, likely headed to Booyah Base just as I was. I tried not to make eye contact. There were also some adults, and even some with younger kids. My Gamepad shimmered into view as I held it in front of me, displaying a map of the station and the time. I had 10 minutes until the train arrived, so I decided to find out what features the Gamepad had, and how I could use them. Touching the question mark symbol in the corner led me to an onscreen manual. I found out I could scan people and it would tell me their Username, rank, clothing stats, and more. That should be pretty useful for turf wars, I thought. I realized I hadn't set up a username yet, so I navigated to that screen so I could do so. I had been thinking for a while now about what my username would be, but I couldn't think of anything cool or interesting, so I just used 'Coral'. The screen blipped. 'Username setup successful,' it read. I still had some time left, so I went back to reading the features. Apparently it could even keep track of my money (all of which I brought I had already spent on a two way train ticket), and had something else called Miiverse. Before I could look into it any more, I heard a short jingle sounding like the Calamari County Anthem, signaling the train was arriving.

The train screeched into the station and the jingle stopped. I wondered which car I should take. I was thinking one of the business cars, as going into the car packed with kids my age who were already higher levels and might make fun of a first-timer would probably be the mental equivalent of suicide. The doors slid open, and the inklings my age piled into one of the cars. I got a glimpse of the inside. It was packed with inklings, all looking super fresh. I didn't want to take the chance of even more embarrassment, so I headed over to one of other cars. I stepped inside to find there were only a few adults, who didn't seem to even notice me, so I sat down.


	4. Meeting Stella and Tutorial Part 1

I heard the jingle play again, signaling the train was about to leave. I flicked my wrist to turn on my Gamepad. I pulled my earbuds out of my pocket and plugged them in, and put on my favorite playlist. I had some popular songs but mostly instrumental music, which I really enjoyed. They seem to fit whatever I'm doing more than songs with lyrics do.

We made several stops, a few at each sector. Watching all the buildings and scenery fly past while listening to some of my less-hyper songs really helped calm me down. Well, until a Squid Sister Song came on. Their songs were always happy and energetic, and usually glorifying Turf Wars, like the one I was listening to now. I imagined myself battling to this music. It was easy to see why they were one of the most popular bands in Inkopolis.

I was just about to take out a Carbon Roller with a Splat Bomb when the conductor's voice crackled over the loudspeaker, forcing me back to reality. "Arriving at the Bluefin sector." I looked at the Train Schedule and saw that my stop, Booyah Junction, was next. I looked around and noticed a girl inkling about my age on the seat opposite of me, her head pressed sideways against the window. She had earbuds in too, and a sort of worried look in her orange eyes. She had long, vibrant turquoise hair, and was wearing the starter clothes like me. This must be her first time too… How did I not notice her? I thought, beginning to feel nervous. My clothes suddenly felt tighter, and my heart rate increased. I suddenly felt more self conscious about my appearance, especially my outfit, than I ever had in my life. Calm down, you idiot, I thought. She's wearing the same clothes as you!

She blinked a few times, and noticed me looking at her. I quickly looked away. She didn't seem to care I had been staring at her and flashed me a quick smile. She went back to looking out the window. What did I do right? Was the smile genuine, or sarcastic? It dawned upon me that we would be getting off at the same stop and, kill me now, going through training together. You might be thinking this is a good opportunity to make a new friend to share the experience of my first day with, but let me tell you, it's going to be my doom. I am pretty socially awkward and insecure in almost any situation, especially when a girl is involved. I figured that there is a 90% chance I will blow it and embarrass myself right off the bat.

As the train screeched into Inkopolis Station, I was, unsurprisingly, still pretty nervous. The door slid open and I waited until the girl walked out before joining her. The rest of the Inklings my age got off at the next station, which was a plus. Although maybe one of the nicer ones would have been able to point me in the direction of the tutorial, because I didn't have the slightest idea of where to go next, and it didn't seem like the girl Inkling knew either.

This problem seemed to solve itself fairly quickly as both of our gamepads beeped simultaneously. We both looked down. "Tutorial directions load complete. Activate now?" Man, these things are awesome, I thought as I selected 'yes'. It beeped again, and projected a large holographic image of 3 orange circular outlines and an arrow in front of me. The same thing was projected out of the girl Inkling's Gamepad, only in turquoise. The arrows both pointed in the same direction, and it didn't take a genius to figure out we were supposed to follow them.

We wordlessly followed the arrows until we reached a door at the end of an alleyway and some stirs. It had the word "Tutorial" written on it. I held open the door for her, and she flashed me another smile. "Thanks," She said.

"Um...You're w-welcome," I said, trying to hide my nervousness. So far, I wasn't doing so great. "Um… My-my name's Coral." I smiled shyly. I hoped it didn't look dumb. I'm sure it did.

"My name's Stella. User's the same. Nice to meet you!"

Still smiling, she extended her hand. I shook it. "So… Um… You have any idea what to do now?" I asked, and took a look around. We were in an open-air enclosed park-ish area. There were some stairs leading down in front of me, so I started walking towards them. As soon as I took a single step, our gamepads beeped. I looked down. On the screen was an image of a lot of young inklings with various weapons and ink colors. 'Hey you. Yeah, You! Want to be the freshest squid on the block?' It read in white letters on the bottom. "Uh…Yeah?" I said and tapped the screen. It changed to a picture of some more kids and squids shooting various weapons and swimming around. 'We'll teach you some funky-fresh moves on the way to Inkopolis!' Ok. Sounds good. I tapped the screen. The message changed to 'Shoot ink to pop the balloons!'


	5. Tutorial Part II

I looked up and readied my Splattershot Jr. A light-green balloon shimmered into existence in front of me. "I think we have to shoot those," Stella said, as she looked up from our gamepad. "Yeah," I replied. My nervousness had decreased a little bit, thank Cod. I took aim and fired a continuous stream of orange ink at the balloon, which I was able to pop relatively easily. Another appeared to my left. "H- How about you get this one," I asked Stella. "On it," She replied, and shot her own jet of turqoise ink at the balloon. I noticed some green straps on my shirt, and realized my Ink tank had materialized on my back, Just like Stella's had. She took out the second and third balloons with ease.

We walked down the stairs to a larger area with a trail of balloons and a few trees. We shot ink along the path we were walking, and popping the balloons as we went. I noticed when I steeped in the cyan ink; I would sink a few inches in and kind of get stuck, as if it were really thick mud. When this happened, I would just shoot my own ink over it, which I could easily move around in.

"Hey, uh, do you think we could somehow sync ink colors? It would make this a lot easier," I asked Stella. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Let me look it up on my Gamepad." After a few seconds, she found the page. "It says here the desired color of ink has to be available to be poured into my tank, which has to be empty. Well, mine almost is anyway, so why don't you just pour yours into mine? That should work."

"Ok. Uh, are you sure you wouldn't rather have me change to your color?" I asked.

"Nah, orange is cool. Go ahead and try unscrewing the tank lid."

I went over to her tank and filled it with orange ink. "Whoa…" She said. Her long tentacles were changing color. They shifted from turquoise, to a kind of light green/yellow, then to orange.

A few minutes in our gamepads beeped again, this time displaying the message 'Turn into a squid to swim in ink!'

"You go first," I said. Stella nodded and took a deep breath. I wondered if she had practiced as much as I had. There was a 'sploop' sound and suddenly, I saw an orange squid staring up at me. She blinked, and slid into the ink. My turn.

I thought about my squid form. I didn't even have to concentrate before, approximately 0.5 seconds later; I was in my squid form. I slid into the ink just as Stella had. It was great. It felt cool and refreshing, and I felt rejuvenated and calm, like I had just taken a nice warm shower or something. I could still see out of it, but everything was tinted orange. The ink was about a foot deep, so I lightly skimmed the surface as I sped through. I was going pretty fast, a lot faster than when I was walking. I sensed Stella in her squid form a few feet away. I was coming to the end of the puddle, so I jumped out, resumed human form and immediately began shooting more ink. Stella jumped out and followed suit. "So, um, when did you turn fourteen?" I asked.

"Just yesterday." Hmm. Sounded pretty risky to me. "Did you have a fun birthday?" I asked.

Her smile faltered. "Oh… It was… great. Yeah. Really fun."

Hmm. I decided not to avoid the topic of birthdays. "Which sector do you live in?" I asked, glad to change the subject.

"Moray," She said, smiling again. "I live in one of those super-tall apartment buildings. You?"

"Blackbelly. I can see the skate park from my porch. It's really cool watching live turf wars."

We made a path up to the next section. We could use our squid forms to swim up inked walls with minimal effort, which was pretty cool. Once we got to the top, there was a ramp at the end of a raised platform that led to a higher-up section. 'You can dash-jump as a squid to jump farther,' our gamepads beeped. We climbed up to the platform, and I sank into my squid form again. I thought I would probably get farthest if I jumped right towards the end. I swam forward, building up speed, and jumped right at the last second. I sailed a through the air and landed in my human form at the edge of the next section. Stella gave me the thumbs-up. I could only see the ripples in the ink as she sped through, perfectly timing her jump and doing a backflip mid- air to land crouched in her human form in front of me. And I thought my turning back into my humanoid form mid-jump was impressive.

"How…" I stared in awe.

"Beginner's luck, I guess. I just sort of turned and used the momentum to flip… Does that make any sense?"

"And you say your birthday was just yesterday?" I asked, still bewildered.

"Uh. Yeah. Just try it next time, it's not that hard."


	6. Super Jump!

The next task was to swim through grates as a squid. I mentioned our bodies were made of liquid, right? After finding out it was a lot easier than it looked, we came to a clearing with a ton of purple ink and some strange object in the center.

"Is that… a UFO?" Stella asked, her expression a combination of surprise, fear, and curiosity.

It sure did look eerily close to one. It was stuck almost halfway in the ground, but from what I could see, it was like a large disk that got progressively wider towards the center. It was covered in strange symbols and piping, along with flickering circular lights. I got closer to inspect it. Ok, I thought, time to put that brain of yours to work. I reached out and touched it. Titanium-carbon alloy, as I had expected, the only way it would have been light enough to fly, as well as durable enough to survive so well in a crash like this. Some of the panels had fallen off, revealing it's inner piping and circuitry. I shown my phone's flashlight inside. Definitely not made in Inkopolis, I didn't recognize any of it. After searching for a few minutes, I figured out it had a highly advanced electromagnetic repulsion generator. This would require an insane amount of electricity to run, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't find a power source, or room for one, for that matter. This was more annoying to me than it should've been. Nonetheless, this was definitely a UFO.

"I think this is the real deal. I wonder who was piloting it?" I asked

"Whoever it was must have escaped. I don't see any trail."

"S-should we tell someone?"

"I doubt they would believe us."

"Hold on, I have an idea." I pulled out my phone and snapped a few pictures. "That should do it."

"Good thinking! Anyway, there's not much else we can do. Let's move on." As we swam up to the next are our gamepads beeped again. 'Throw bombs to smash boxes!'

"We have bombs?" Stella asked.

"Apparently." I looked down at the gamepad, which showed an ink tank with the light flashing red, and a small triangular bomb on the top. I reached back to my own tank, and grasped a small object. It was the bomb. I held it in my hand. "These are pretty small bombs," I said. "Try throwing it," She suggested.

I aimed as best I could at the stack of wood boxes in front of us, and chucked the bomb at them. The second it left my hand, it quadrupled in size, and bounced of the boxes to land on the ground in front them. There was a high pitched beep and it exploded in a large ball of ink, tearing the boxes to shreds. I made a mental note to research how it worked when I got home.

"That was… pretty cool," Stella smiled.

The bomb had left a large amount of ink on the wall, so we were easily able to climb it. There was another wall we had to climb before we made it to the top, this one with a Squid Sisters poster taped to it. Stella looked at me.

"Do you like the Squid Sisters?"

I figured it wasn't too embarrassing to admit it. "Yeah. I was listening to them on the way here."

"So was I! Man, their music is the best. Which do you like better, Callie or Marie?"

My mind went question, I knew, was probably best left avoided. "Uh… get back to me on that."

We cleared the last section of the wall and came to a fenced-in area with a swirling pool of ink in the center. A launchpad. I waved Stella on. "Ladies first." Whoa! Brain, what even was that? Well, it didn't sound too dumb… right?

"Thanks!" She said, smiling. She smiles a lot. I love that.

She sort of just stood there in the middle of the swirling ink. "This feels pretty weird."

"I think you need to become a squid for it to work," I said.

"Oh yeah. Thanks." Once she transformed, she raised her mantle (for all of you unfamiliar with the wondrous squid biology, that means the pointy part on top of the head.) And jumped, leaving a trail of ink. Not wanting to be left behind, I quickly stepped into the pool. She was right, it did feel weird. I felt strangely energized as I transformed, raised my mantle, and shot off almost without thinking.

Super Jumping is amazing. You feel energized, you go fast, you can see everything… It was even better to be able to share the moment with Stella. I had nearly caught up with her now. Suddenly, I realized I hadn't stuttered or even said 'Um' in at least the last ten minutes or so. (Ok, yes, I did say 'Uh' one time. But that's it!) How is that even possible? I was sure I was going to be a blubbering insecure wreck the whole time… but I wasn't. I realized why. It's Stella. She's just so easy to talk to, and just be around… I smiled. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.

The bright green Inkopolis tower came into view, as well as some of the other tall buildings. I could see I was heading straight towards the center of Booyah Base. I reached the peak of my jump and began decreasing in altitude. I looked down just in time to resume human form and land crouched on the asphalt. I looked over to where Stella had landed, a few feet away from me. Our ink tanks faded away again, and Stella's tentacles reverted back to turquoise. "That was awesome!" she said cheerily.

I surveyed the area. We had landed on a large roughly square area of asphalt, with a few diagonal crosswalks painted on. We were surrounded by buildings on all sides except for behind us, which was where the train station was located. To the left were a group of cylindrical buildings that looked like stores, displaying their names and products on large colorful billboards and signs. To my right were a couple of rectangular buildings, with a ramp overhang leading to the entrance of a building and what looked like a studio, and affixed to the wall was a jumbo-tron displaying more ads. On top of the buildings on both sides were giant statues of Fox and Tanuki staring down at us. Directly ahead was Inkopolis Tower itself, in all of its neon green splendor. Right at the base there was the Turf War lobby, accompanied by speakers blaring a constant beat. Scattered around were various inklings just sort of milling around, some talking to each other and others just waiting.


	7. Inkopolis News Time

Just then I heard a jingle of notes being played. All the inklings in the plaza looked up at the jumbo-tron, which now displayed the Squid Sisters logo, which gave way to the Squid Sisters themselves, standing in a studio. Stella seemed genuinely excited, and I couldn't help but smile. Callie began speaking, followed by Marie.

"Hold on to your tentacles…"

"It's Inkopolis News time!"

"Let's unveil the current battle stages!"

"All right!" They went on to reveal that the current stages were Flounder Heights and Blackbelly Skatepark. My heart jumped a bit when they said Blackbelly. I was going to get to use my strategies! After that they listed some other stages for ranked mode. People began to look away, so I assumed it was almost over.

"News flash! News flash!"

"What is it? What is it?"

"Inkopolis's Great Zapfish has… vanished!

"Wait, Seriously?"

"If we don't get it back soon, we might lose power!"

"Maybe it has something to do with the UFO sighting."

Stella and I exchanged worried glances.

"Well that's all for now, until next time…"

"Stay Fresh!" They said together, with their signature wave.

"That thing about losing power really worries me," I began.

"Yeah, losing power would suck. This reminds me of something from 7th grade history, but I just can't place it. Well, anyway, we shouldn't let worrying ruin our first day."

I was about to start unloading a ton of history facts on her, but luckily I stopped just in time. She was right. "Where should we go first?" I asked.

"I would like to go check out those stores over there," She responded.

I looked around before responding, and noticed a large black and white cat asleep on a pillow next to one of the speakers.

"You go ahead… There's someone I want to talk to."

"Ok…I'll meet you in the lobby in like ten minutes."

"Sounds good. See ya." I started walking over to the cat. As I passed other inklings, my gamepad would project their username above them, which I thought was pretty cool. I wondered If they could see it too.

Once I got closer to the cat, I recognized him immediately. It was Judd, the judge cat, the Great Decider of Victors and Scrublords, and such. I had seen him on TV many times, he judged the professional turf wars as well as your regular Ink Battles. He seemed like he was sleeping, so I kind of just stood there for a while. A inkling boy sitting next to the wall near where I was standing looked at me.

"You just have to talk to him. He's not really sleeping."

I read the projection above his head. "Thanks, uh… Lukas."

"No prob." He went back to gazing into the distance.

"Um… Hi." I began.

Judd's eyes fluttered, but did not open all the way. "Miow! Whoa, pal, you need to work on that pawsitively clawful level."

There are 50 levels of experience for turf war. I was level 1, which was indeed 'clawful'. "Yeah, I know. I was hoping you could give me some tips or something."

"Fur reals- go to the lobby and play some Turf Wars to level up!"

"You say that to everyone on their first day, don't you?"

"Yup. Oh, well I have another tip. Don't go into any of the shops until you're at least level 4. They won't let you buy anything, and probably kick you out."

"That's pretty harsh," I said, thinking of Stella.

"Yeah. But leveling up is easy. Just battle. Cat-cha later!" He said, and went back to sleep. The lobby was really close by, so I decided to wait outside the door for Stella. As I was walking, I noticed a few things I hadn't seen before. There was a manhole cover near where Judd was sleeping, and I could just catch it wobble if I looked out of the corner of my eye. Pretty weird. I thought I should wait for Stella before checking it out any further.

I saw Stella walking up towards the Lobby, and she noticed me and came over. She looked disappointed."How did it go?" I asked, although I could already guess her answer.

"Terrible." She responded. "They all said I wasn't fresh enough, and needed to be level four to buy anything. I guess it's ok though, because I don't have any money anyway." She seemed to remember something, and a worried look crossed her face again, like it had on the train. She quickly snapped back to her usual self.

"Yeah, me neither," I said. "There's really only one thing left to do-"

"Turf war!" She said smiling, and we hurried into the lobby.


	8. Searching for Opponents

With a pneumatic whirr, the double doors to the lobby slid open. We stepped inside. It was a large circular room with a column in the middle with several screens and control panels. There was a door at the back of the room. The walls of the room flashed the turf war logo, two interlocking squids, on their low quality screens. I walked over to one of the control panels, and looked up at the display. Stella went to the one next to me. The screen gave me several options, including gear and weapon switch, Turf war, Friends battle, Ranked mode, and a few others. It also showed the current maps, my level and how much money I had. I had no other weapons, gear, or friends, and wasn't a high enough level to do Ranked mode, so I selected Turf War.

The screen changed to read 'Searching for battle to join'. I glanced at Stella's screen to see hers said the same thing. Our screens changed at the same moment to show a list of three or so names, and the words 'Searching for Opponents. Our gamepads beeped, and the familiar three circles and arrow were projected out again, pointing directly to the back door.

I pushed it open to find a small room with a launchpad in the center, much like the one at the end of the tutorial, only this one was made of swirling ink that was an almost transparent white. It was Achromatic Ink, or Clear Ink, as most people called it. Since it was colorless, no inkling could be harmed by it, making it really useful whenever you needed ink inklings of all colors could use. We used it all the time, from drinking to showering to public swimming pools. We couldn't just use water, of course, because it makes our liquid bodies dissolve. Anyway, I let Stella go first again. "You really are a gentleman," She said, and I tried not to blush, but likely failed miserably. She jumped almost vertically, and I followed close behind. We shot through a grate into the observation center near the top of the tower.

It was another large circular room with glass stretching across the entirety of the walls. There were a few chairs and an old arcade machine as well as a large screen that displayed the usernames of the waiting inklings, including mine and Stella's. There were a few inklings milling about, some sitting in chairs and others talking and comparing weapons. In the center of the room was another large column, this one filled with neatly organized piping and nozzles. I wondered what it was for.

I went over to inspect the arcade game while Stella sat down and fiddled with her Splattershot Jr. The game was in pretty good shape, and it didn't cost anything to play, so I decided to give it a shot. The screen booted up and the words 'Squid Jump' were displayed. I remembered that game! I used to have it on my old SEN console at home. I was also pretty good at it too. You play as a small white squid and jump on platforms to reach a Zapfish. It's harder than it sounds, trust me. Every few seconds while playing I would hear another inkling Super Jump through the grate, and see their Username and rank appear on the large screen.

I made it about halfway through level 2 before there were enough inklings to start the battle. I saw everyone head over to the big machine, so me and Stella did the same. I got a good look at our opponents/possible teammates for the first time. There were two pretty tough-looking inklings, one with a Carbon Roller and one with an E-leiter. My gamepad Identified them as levels 50 and 42. There were some middle-level inklings with various weapons, I saw two blasters, a Slosher, and a Nozzlenose. This is going to be interesting.

Stella and I put our backs to the machine like everyone else. There was a whirring noise as eight mechanical tubes extended from the machine and hooked on to our ink tanks. The sound of liquid flowing through pipes filled the room as highly pressurized, condensed ink filled up each one of our tanks. I shivered. It was a strange but not particularly unpleasant feeling. I looked over at Stella. Her tentacles shifted to a bright yellow. "What color am I?" I asked.

"Hey, you're yellow too! Were on the same team!" I felt relieved and nervous at the same time. I was going to be on the same team as Stella, which was awesome, but that meant our team was going to have two level ones on it. We would lose for sure. Before I could respond, a voice called from hidden speakers. "Yellow team to Launchpad A. Purple team to Launchpad B. Launching in 30 seconds. "Which one is Launchpad A?" I asked.

"Just follow the other yellows," She said, and we hurried to catch up with them. I recognized them , they were the level 50 and 42. Maybe we wouldn't lose so miserably after all. The 42 looked a bit disappointed when he saw us, but the 50 didn't seem to mind. "Come on, you two," He said, "We don't want the battle to start without us." The launchpad was huge, set on a balcony outside the tower. Me and Stella climbed on, followed by the other two. It felt like the one at the end of the tutorial, but much more powerful. The voice came over the speakers again. "Launching in 3… 2… 1… Launching engaged."

We flew faster than I thought was possible. We sailed over Booyah Base, over the Tutorial area, and I could even make out the train station as we soared by. It was stunning. I could see the Purple team following close behind us. I felt an amazing feeling of comradery as I looked at my teammates, knowing I was about to be battling alongside them. I was so caught up in my thoughts I almost didn't realize we were almost at Blackbelly Skatepark. I saw my apartment complex, but realized it was pointless to try and tell Stella over the sound of the wind. I glanced down. We were falling fast, right over the yellow spawn point.

I landed in the deep pool of yellow ink, and swam up to the surface. I saw my teammates all around me. We all turned humanoid at the same time and shook the excess ink still holding on from our squid forms. Everyone readied their weapons. "Ok, I know we don't have much time, but listen up." The level 50 said. "You two… try and avoid trouble. Just stay behind and get the areas we miss, and try and avoid the main area as much as you can. Don't engage anyone unless you're sure you can win. Got it?"

"Got it," I said, and Stella nodded. For a second I was caught up in the moment. Here I was. Actually playing turf war for the first time. On the very same spot I had watched others play for 14 years. Oh, this was going to be fun.

*Author's Notes*

I have big plans for this story, plans that extend far beyond these two inkling's first day of their journey. Because of this, I have realized these characters need to be a bit more in depth in order to keep the story interesting. I have sightly updated some of what I have already written to fit the 'new' Coral and Stella. Don't worry, though, I haven't changed them that much. In fact, the only change that is really important enough for you to check out, is in chapter 5.

I hope no one minds these changes. I would also like to give a shout out to Guest for their awesome review. I'm really glad you're enjoying this story so far! As always, don't forget to Follow, Fave, and write a Review!


	9. Turf War Start!

A horn blared, and everyone jumped off the spawn point. Music blasted out of hidden speakers, setting the mood for the battle; chaotic, fast, fun. The E-leiter and Carbon Roller rushed to mid, trying to secure it to cut off the other team's vantage points. The spawn was located at the end of a large open area filled with half pipes and other skating obstacles. There were three paths leading to mid, the wide one in the middle, one on the left which is rarely used, and the far right, which provides the safest way to mid. Stella and I crisscrossed through the spawn area, thoroughly covering it in yellow. "Ok," Stella said, "Now what?"

"We should see if we can help out in mid. Follow me," I responded, and led her to the far right path. I used my Squid form to climb up a wall and through a grate to get a better position for inking, one of the things I'd picked up while watching Turf War from home. I was hit with the sudden realization that I was in a Turf War. Like, actualy in one. I had looked forward to this for so, so long, and here I was. "So, I guess this is what a real Turf Wa-"

I was cut off by a gut-wrenching roar. The grate shook beneath my feet. "What was that?" Stella asked, strangely undaunted.

"It was just a Killer Wail, don't worry." Truthfully, I was mostly telling myself not to worry. "It must have been someone on the other team using it, the Nozzlenose, I think. We're lucky it didn't hit us." I looked down at my gamepad, which displayed which people on both teams were still alive, as well as a map of the skatepark and a ton of other information I didn't have time to look at. "Looks like one of our other teammates wasn't so lucky." I hopped up onto another platform overlooking mid, and Stella stayed on the low path but took cover behind a barrier. I had expected Inkstrikes and Killer Wails to be going off everywhere, but it was strangely calm. Well, for Turf War anyway. It was a fairly large space with a tall tower in the middle, and a few obstacles and platforms scattered around. "I don't see anyone. Should we go?" Stella asked.

"Um… I don't-"

"Come on!" She exclaimed, and rushed forward. I had no choice but to jump down to follow her. The Nozzlenose was waiting for her, and jumped out of a puddle of purple ink. "Watch out!" I exclaimed, thinking it was already too late. But Stella quickly trained her Splattershot Jr. on him and he exploded in a burst of yellow. A little purple ghost squid floated up into the air. I didn't have time to be impressed because not a second later, I heard another opponent approaching. It was a girl this time, and her purple hair was glowing and bubbling -her special was fully charged. She lowered her Custom Range Blaster and smiled menacingly. What special did that weapon have again? Oh, I remember.

Oh no.


	10. Release The Kraken!

In that moment, two things happened at almost the exact same time. The first was me, yelling at Stella to "RUN!", and the second, was the worst thing I had heard all day. Yes, even worse than the Killer Wail.

"RELEASE THE KRAKEN!"

She screamed these fateful words as she jumped high into the air,transforming into a gigantic purple squid as she did so. It looked really cool, and I would've loved to be able to enjoy the moment, but unfortunately there was now a bloodthirsty Kraken chasing me. Stella and I swam as fast as we could, but the Kraken was catching up quick. We jumped over a platform to get to the other side of mid. I didn't see the Kraken anywhere, but I just knew she was somewhere. Suddenly, a shadow blocked out the sun. A Kraken shaped shadow. She had jumped off the top of the tower, and was falling right on top of us. I had no time to react, and was instantly crushed, exploding into purple ink. I felt a sharp pinch all throughout my body, but then it was over, and all I felt was numbness. I opened my eyes to see that I was floating higher and higher above the Skatepark. I saw Stella's little ghost squid next to me. She must have died as well. My eyes followed our killer to see she was back to normal and had climbed back up onto the tower. Suddenly everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back to normal, standing on the Spawn Point. "Well, that sucked," Stella grumbled, standing beside me.

"Yep." I looked at the timer on my Gamepad. "We still have a minute and a half left, and it's pretty much tied." I looked back at my Gamepad, and saw a streak of purple running down the right path into our base. "Hold on."

"What?"

"We're being invaded." I stated quickly. "Ok, let's split up. You distract him, I'll attack from above."

"Rodger." She said, and took off. I swam over to the grate I had used earlier. I hopped up onto it and saw Stella expertly dodging the Luna Blaster, luring him farther into our base. "What's the matter," She taunted, "Can't hit a Noob?"

The Luna Blaster growled and lunged at Stella. I jumped down, landing behind him and opened fire. It was over pretty quickly, leaving only a fresh puddle of yellow ink. I probably should have felt bad, but I knew he was just going to respawn anyway. "We should probably go this way again, cover up this guy's trail," I suggested. Stella nodded, and we continued down the path. We made it to the entrance to mid, and saw our E-leiter on top of a short wall near the entrance to the enemy base. He seemed to be holding mid pretty well, but most of it was still covered in purple. "So… How about we go up on the tower? We can get better coverage from there, I bet." Stella suggested.

"I was about to say that,"I complained.

"Oh sure." Stella smiled, rolling her eyes.

"No, really! Never mind…" I said as I swam up the side of the tower after her.


	11. Real Turf War

I jumped on top of the tower and looked around. I could see the whole map, almost. We started covering the ground below us. "So yeah," Stella said, "This is

what a real Turf War feels like."

"Pretty cool, huh?" I asked, chucking a few bombs of the edge.

"This can't be good, can it," Stella began. I looked over, and saw she was looking at a purple holographic dome that was being projected right in the center of the tower we were standing on.

Oh no. Again.

I grabbed Stella's hand and screamed, "JUMP!" right as the Inkstrike hit. We jumped off the tower. We landed in a small puddle of yellow, which absorbed most of the impact, just in time to see a gigantic ink tornado spiraling upward from the base of the tower, leaving it drenched in purple. "Oh, uh. Sorry," I apologised, quickly letting go of Stella's hand.

Stella just laughed. "What are you apologising for? Um, you literally just saved me."

"Uh. Sorry."

"No really. Thank you."

"You- You're welcome." My gamepad beeped; one minute remaining. "Come on, we have to keep going. This way!" I lead Stella to the left entrance to the enemy base. The music changed to a quicker and even more up-beat tune. One minute remaining. We had pretty much gotten it down by now, shooting ink, swimming forward, shooting more ink. I could see the enemy base getting closer.

Stella let out a small gasp. I looked over at her, to see her hair glowing and bubbling. "Check it out," She said, "My special's charged! And it's a Bubbler, right? That means we can invade their base, and they won't be able to get us!"

"Yes, but it runs out pretty fast… Hold on, mine's almost charged up! If I can activate mine just as yours runs out, we can have a double-length Bubbler!"

Stella's eyes sparkled. "Let's do it!"

We charged into the base. Almost immediately, a Slosher saw us, and went in for the kill. Stella yelled and activated her Bubbler, instantly enclosing herself in a force field. The purple ink bounced off her, and she quickly splatted the Slosher. I swam up next to her and a force field surrounded me as well. It dulled the music and the sounds of the battle around me, letting me calmly assess my surroundings and continue covering their base in yellow. Suddenly, I had the weirdest feeling. Energized, like I was standing in a launchpad, but better. This time it felt like the power was coming from within me, not from something else. I realized my special was fully charged. And just in time, too, as my Bubbler began to flicker. I looked over at Stella to see she was taking on the Luna Blaster, but her Bubbler was almost gone. I quickly swam up to her, ready to activate my own Bubbler, but to my horror, the Luna Blaster managed to splat her. All that was left was a puddle of purple and a small ghost rising up from where she had stood. With a smirk, the Luna Blaster turned to me.

"NO!" I shouted and activated my Bubbler. His smirk turned to fear as I went in for the kill. It was over quickly, and soon one more ghost rose above the battlefield. I hope Stella saw that. I didn't have time to congratulate myself because suddenly I was being pushed back by none other than the Custom Range Blaster. I tried to shoot back at her, but she had me pushed up against a wall, unable to move.

Then my bubbler ran out. So did my ink. I was trapped. An easy kill. There it was, another harsh pinch, then numbness, then floating above the battlefield. The Custom Range Blaster exploded, and I heard our E-leiter Booyah. I Booyah'd back. Then I blacked out.

Stella was waiting for me at spawn. "That was so cool! You really showed that guy who's boss."

"Uh… yeah, I guess." I blushed. "Thanks."

Stella glanced at her Gamepad. "Ok. Fifteen seconds left. It's almost tied. C'mon!"


	12. The Final 15

She dived into the ink and I followed close behind. We chose the direct path to mid, and went to the left of the tower. I saw a Slosher approaching from the left entrance to the enemy's base. I quickly swam up a quarter pipe and splatted him. Five seconds left. Stella and I spread ink as fast as we could. The E-leiter got another kill from the top of the tower. I chucked one last bomb. The whistle blew.

I froze. The music stopped. "What now?" I whispered to Stella. She shrugged. Suddenly, a screen flickered to life on the wall above us. Huh- It looked like only a poster when we were battling. On the screen was an aerial view of the map, a bar labeled 'Good Guys' on one end and 'Bad Guys' on the other, and of course, the great judge himself, Judd.

He waved his flags around a few times. The bar filled partially with yellow and purple. Stella held her breath. Judd held the flags behind his back. Then, stepping to the right, he held out…

The purple flag.

We lost.

I read the numbers displayed on the bar. Yellow: 43.3. Purple: 45.2. So close! I heard Booyahs coming from the other team. Stella sighed. "Hey… Don't worry about it," I advised. "It's our first match. We'll win the next one for sure."

Stella smiled. "For sure. let's just hope we're on the same team again."

The E-leiter jumped down from the tower. "You two did really well… for first-timers, anyway."

"Yeah," The Carbon Roller chimed in, "You did a lot better than I thought you were going to, that's for sure."

"Uh… th-thanks…" I mumbled, blushing again. Stella gave the E-leiter a high five.

"C'mon you two. Back to spawn." The Carbon Roller instructed, and we followed him back to our base.

We stepped up onto the Spawn point. The familiar feeling of energy pulsed through me once more. I sank into my squid form, followed by the rest of my team. I took one last look at the skatepark, then jumped.

I lay awake in bed, thinking about the events of the day. My room was softly illuminated by the orange glow of my alarm clock. The only sound was the humming of my various computers and devices on my desk.

The rest of the day had been a blur- Turf War after Turf War. I had done pretty good, and gotten to level 8. With my money I had won in battle, I was able to buy myself some new clothes and a couple of weapons so that I didn't look quite so moldy. Stella and I had stuck together pretty much all day. After Turf Wars closed for the night, we walked down to the police station and showed them my UFO pictures. They didn't seem too interested, oddly enough. Then Stella had to run off, saying something about picking up her little brother. After, I caught the train back home and told my parents about my day, and then was off to bed. Looking back, it seemed my time with Stella had been cut short- even though that I had spent practically the whole day with her. But I wasn't too worried, since I would be seeing her again tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that, too

So yeah. The day I had looked forward to for 14 years- way, way better than I could have imagined.


End file.
